In 1950, the world's population was two and a half billion. By 1987, this number had doubled to just over five billion. At the end of 2016, the world's population had grown to almost seven and a half billion people. Thankfully, the world's population is not expected to double again. I believe most authorities expect it to level off somewhere around the 10 billion mark. But seven and a half billion is a lot. After all, a billion is a thousand millions. Seven and a half of those is no small number. And every one of these billions of people are unique individuals with their own unique DNA.
And in this populated world there are many different names individuals go by. Sometimes a person can be identified as to nationality or nation of origin just by their name. And some names have evolved over time so that they may not resemble the original all that closely.
For instance, my last name is Byrnes. It is pronounced the same as Burns, although folks are constantly mispronouncing it as Bryans or Burness. I am told that our name used to be O'byrne and that it is Irish in origin. In fact, based on my nature, I am sure that it is Irish in origin. But I digress.
I would like to ask my readers to guess what the odds are of something like the following happening:
Last Saturday, Linda and I attended the Razorback Invitational Track Meet at the University of Arkansas. There were about 15 schools represented at the meet, with some of the most elite collegiate athletes in attendance. Linda had been afraid that it would be boring but found the whole thing interesting and certainly not boring. We were privileged to witness several new world records set in several races. As we were watching different races, the woman next to Linda struck up a conversation with her. She said they had a daughter running for Arkansas and that they lived in Fort Worth, Texas. After some chit chat, she casually remarked that they were Burns.
I said, "That's funny, so are we."
"But we spell ours B-Y-R-N-E-S" she said.
"That's really weird because we do too," Linda told her.
Then Linda stuck out her hand and said, "Hi, I'm Linda."
The lady looked kind of funny before breaking into a laugh.
"My name is Linda, too!" she said.
We all had to laugh, yet it left me wondering just what the odds would be that two Linda Byrnes would find themselves seated beside each other at a track meet at the University of Arkansas. I have no way of figuring this out, but I would guess the chances are really slim. I mean, it's not like two John Smiths meeting somewhere by chance. I have very rarely even met another person who spelled his or her last name the same as me, so for something like this to happen was kind of mind blowing.
Pretty soon we were able to watch Alexandra Byrnes run in the 800-meter race. There was more than one heat for most races. Alexandra ran well in her heat, finishing second to an Arkansas teammate. We were right there to cheer her on with our new friends, the Byrnes. Maybe we'll see them again at a future track meet. Just for the record, the Arkansas men's track team won the tournament, while the Razorback women came in third.
Sam Byrnes is a Gentry-area resident and weekly contributor to the Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 02/08/2017